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Monday, June 4, 2012

New Ways To Boost My Family's Eco Footprint & Save Money

My family is always looking for ways to boost our eco footprint. Beyond the advantages to our community, the environment and our planet, we've often found that eco-friendly changes to our household also provide savings to our budget. That is certainly a win-win situation in this Mom's book!

Although we've been replacing our standard incandescent household bulbs with more energy efficient CFL bulbs for some time, we still have a number of fixtures about the house that require specialty bulbs. None of these bulbs have been upgraded to the more eco friendly bulbs now available.

Making the decision to switch out our standard bulbs was easy. Both our local electric provider and our township's offices have made it simple and affordable. At least twice, we've received mailers from the electric provider, offering switch out kits simply for filling out a quick form online. Any time we stop in to our township's business office, we are greeted with up to date flyers, outlining the latest items now accepted at the township's recycling center, as well as a free CFL! With such generous support all around us and no out of pocket cost, it would be irresponsible to not take advantage of these green opportunities!

With so much energy savings being gifted our way, the Hubs and I decided it was time for us to put our money where our green mouth is and make an energy efficient lighting purchase on our own! The Hubs is always a willing shopping partner when a trip to Sam's Club is planned; he just loves to browse at Sam's and try to talk me into some fun, new items. With a trip scheduled this past weekend, we decided to explore and see if Sam's Club offered any of the specialty energy efficient bulbs we needed.

We were not disappointed! Not only did our local Sam's Club offer a wide selection of GE energy efficient bulbs, but they offered every specialty bulb we would require to completely convert our home's lighting for the green!

With a number of energy wasting fixtures, such as the (shudder) 80's style large globe fixtures in the master bath and kid's bathroom on the hit list for replacement in the near future, we decided converting the dining room chandelier bulbs would be a great place to start. Sam's offered GE halogen candle style bulbs, as well as energy smart LED bulbs. We decided to purchase the LEDs, despite the larger price tag, as they were the greenest option.

Converting our old incandescent bulbs to the new GE smart energy LED bulbs was as easy, well as easy as changing a light bulb! The advantage was simply astounding. Where our old bulbs would use 200 to 240 watts of energy to light the five bulb chandelier, depending on whether the Hubs had picked up 40 or 60 watt bulbs, the new GE energy smart LED bulbs only use 2 watts a piece! No typo. Only 2 watts!! What a difference in converting only one fixture, from 240 down to 10 watts!

Although we spent just under $60 on three off the 2 bulb packages, the savings we'll enjoy over time will be phenomenal as each of these bulbs has an average life of eight years! Again, no typo. The Hubs is tickled green that he won't be having to change those bulbs out again for a long time!

While the expense of converting our entire home's lighting to more energy efficient bulbs is too costly to be accomplished in one trip, by picking up a package or bulb during each weekly shopping trip, we'll ease the expense into our budget and have fully efficient, green lighting in no time. The key is to begin and we're glad we did!

What efforts are you and your family taking to boost your eco footprint?What has worked well for you?What holds you back from making greener changes?Tell me in a comment below! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and GE. #CBias #SocialFabric #GELighting. The opinions above are both honest and of my own experiences.

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I've converted all the lights as they need replacing. I replaced 2 kitchen lights as soon as we moved in! I spent $20! I was disappointed when one of the bulbs I'd been using for less than a year had blown! And it was a new one. But still, I love the energy savings, even if I can't "see" it immediately.

We have stated converting too. As the old bulbs burnout they get replaced with a more eco-friendly bulb. We are about 3/4 of the way done and have gotten rid of all the old bulbs in the cabinet. A shiny new case of energy smart stands ready :)